I'm building my FED with a very small radiator and electric fan so (hopefully) I can "lap" the car without getting temps to a dangerous level. Not wanting to run flex hose to and from the radiator, about 3' one way and 4' the other way, I decided to use 1" X .058" 6061-T6 aluminum tube I had in my rack for the easy, mostly straight sections that will run along the chassis tube. Knowing 6061-T6 tube is tougher than the back of Superman's head to bend I remembered hearing about annealing it with an oxy/acetylene torch. So, I sooted up the section I wanted to bend with straight acetylene, neutralized the flame and heated the tube to burn off the carbon soot. First 2 tries I got it too hot and the end of the tube fell off onto the floor.
Third time I was much more careful and after heating let the tube cool. I used a regular conduit bender and was able to easily and cleanly bend about a 45 degree angle near the end of the tube which is about what I need for the one connection.
I had also borrowed a tubing bead roller from a aircraft friend so the bead would help retain the hose when clamped. It did work on the regular 6061-T6 but the bead roller really didn't like it. After the end of the tube was heated to anneal it I used the bead roller again and ended up with a very nice "factory" looking bead at the end of the tube.
Since it might be a little while until I'm really ready to run the coolant tubes I'll be returning the bead roller for now, but at least I'm past the "proof of concept" stage of what I'll need to do.
You just have to love it when a plan works out!
Lynn
